


Run Away With Me

by xyliane



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aged-Up Character(s), Fluff, M/M, The High Cost Of Deforestation, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 19:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyliane/pseuds/xyliane
Summary: The best vacations aren't supposed be the ones where you end up running for your life because someone saw a problem they had to fix by blowing things up, but that’s how things work out. Both Gon and Killua prefer it this way.





	Run Away With Me

Killua didn’t expect to be running for his life when he woke up this morning. He’s on vacation, after all—vacation in a forest in the middle of nowhere, sure, but this is not the sort of place that leads to the thought “I am going to die today!” It’s an idyllic sort of forest, with lush green leaves the size of Killua’s hand on trees the size of skyscrapers, the forest floor covered with dense underbrush and vines crawling up and around trunks so wide Killua could build an entire house inside and still have room for a garden. The few clearings they’ve found are swampy grounds full of flowers in every color imaginable, including some that even Gon doesn't recognize—which he carefully cataloged for Spinner, in case she and her friends ever wanted to make it up this way, before tucking an orange one into Killua’s white hair and ignoring the screams of mosquitoes in their ears. Killua didn't even mind when he got covered in mud up to his eyeballs when he tackled Gon, dropping more of the blossoms onto his freckled face as they both laughed.

It’s not the sort of place that exactly screams romantic getaway, but Gon and Killua aren’t the sort of people who really need that sort of thing.

It’s also not the sort of place that’s supposed to have militant lumberjacks hellbent on chopping down the forest, who don’t take very kindly to vacationing Hunters stumbling into their camp and destroying their operations because  _someone_ thinks it’s bad for the animals. But the day has been full of surprises.

Surprises like the sound of a whirling buzzsaw headed at Killua’s face, thrown at nen-reinforced speeds too fast to actually see. He throws himself to the ground on instinct, a little crackle of electricity in his own aura that reminds him he hasn’t charged since they left the train station at the start of the week. High above him hanging from a branch by his ankles, Gon cackles gleefully, swinging to and fro like a spiky haired monkey. “Are you okay, Killua?”

“Shut the hell up, Gon!” Killua bellows. He has to roll as soon as the words are out of his mouth, only narrowly avoiding an ax as it spins past his shoulder and embeds itself a foot deep into the tree trunk. He hefts a stone, imbuing it with ren and more than enough electricity to knock out an elephant, and tosses it back in the direction of the shouts. The resulting boom and sound of bodies flying into trees makes him grin.

His best friend flips upwards, having easily avoided all of the blades, staves, and various other woodcutting tools thrown towards them from a hundred meters back. The lumberjacks learned early to keep their distance, although Killua probably can’t pull off another eruption of lightning like he did before and Gon only has so many of those big punches in him. “You know, this was your idea,” Gon says conversationally, like they’re not at risk of being horribly murdered.

Killua takes advantage of the brief lull of sharp things being thrown at him to leap up to where Gon is, hoping the shadows will cover them both for long enough to sketch out a plan of where to go next. Gon offers him a hand up, unneeded but no less appreciated. “I wanted a vacation!” Killua says. “Ikalgo never said anything about the forest being infested with assholes.”

Gon levels him with an incredulous look. “You let  _Ikalgo_ suggest a romantic getaway?”

“Fun, not romantic. Shit, Gon.” The thought makes Killua pause, and he tries to calm the worries that flood his head. “Would you rather have gone somewhere more…I don’t know, coupley?”

Gon looks like he’s mulling this over, willfully oblivious of the imminent death by lumberjack. “I guess the flowers were pretty nice. And the waterfall yesterday, that was cool!”

“The waterfall we only went over because  _you_ trashed these asshole’s camp.”

Gon smiles, a bright flash of white teeth that is entirely too innocent. “You helped! I never could have gotten all of their equipment fried like that, not even with my strongest punch.”

“I can’t let you have all the fun,” Killua says, and Gon’s grin widens, because it has been fun, in a weird sort of way that is absolutely and entirely them. “You have any idea how to get out of here?”

“Nope!” he says like it’s the greatest thing in the world to be stuck up a tree with murderous nen-using lumberjacks after him. And maybe it is, because he’s stuck up a tree with  _Gon_. “You?”

“Yeah, maybe if we head southeast from here, I think the map Ikalgo gave us—” a map that had been lost along with most of their gear by going over the waterfall to escape the murderous lumberjacks “—said there’s a river that leads back to town. If we get there, we can lose those assholes, or lure them into a trap.”

Gon hums in acknowledgment, peering back down towards the forest floor. Far away, a bird call rings off the side of the mountains, echoing oddly despite the chaos-filled forest. It’s…weird. Too weird. Like all of their pursuers had mysteriously vanished. Or stopped. Or been stopped.

Gon notices, too. “Hey, Killua. You think it’s a little too quiet?”

“The lumberjacks scared off most of the wildlife,” Killua says. But there hasn’t been any noise since Killua relocated to the tree, a half-deafening silence compared to the chaotic mess they’d been running through until now. There’s a hundred reasons why that could happen, ranging from “got bored chasing a pair of Hunters” to “fell in a giant pit.” Killua hopes it’s more the latter, and that there were spikes at the bottom of the pit.

Whatever the reason, it’s the gap they need to get the hell out of here. “We should go while we can,” he says. Gon opens his mouth like he’s about to say something, but is stopped by the sound of splitting trunks and a thump like a two-ton boulder crashing through the forest. The lumberjacks begin bellowing again, this time with a noticeable tinge of terror.

“What—”

An enormous lizard monster barrels into the clearing behind them, dumping lumberjacks and pieces of hundreds-year-old forest with ever step and leaving a wide open path in its wake. On all fours, its head comes about halfway up the tree Gon and Killua are perched on, pebbled skin rippling with glimmers of gold and green. The lumberjacks, forcibly evicted from their cover in the trees by the force of  _giant angry beast_ , desperately scramble to get out of the thing’s way.

It looks up, black eyes shimmering with intelligence, and seems to lick its lips.

Killua gapes. “Great. Now we have a  _dinosaur_ trying to kill us, too?”

“That’s not a dinosaur, Killua. It’s a mountainous land moledragon. You don’t see a lot of those! They mostly live in alpine rainforests, and this is kind of out of its ordinary hunting grounds. I wonder if the lumberjacks woke it up.”

Said lumberjacks, no longer attempting to run away from the beast, set to attacking it with everything they’d been attacking Gon and Killua with before, making the dino—the  _mountainous land moledragon_  bellow, stomping with all four legs and making the whole forest tremble and leaves flutter down like green flags.

Gon nods. “See, if it were a dinosaur, it would sound more like a really big chicken—”

“I don’t care, Gon! Let’s get out of here before more of them find us.”

“Spinner will really want to know—”

“Running now, dinosaur later!” Killua grabs Gon’s hand and leaps off into the forest, electrifying his aura just enough to speed through the underbrush. If he used any more, he runs the risk of setting the forest on fire or losing Gon, and while his best friend is still pouting at the loss of the giant lizard, Killua’s just glad to get out of there.

“Southeast’s the other way. You sure you know where we’re going?” Gon asks after they’ve been running for long enough that they should have reached the river. Killua’s stopped using kanmuru, relying on his natural speed and Gon’s uncanny ability to find sure footing on the worst ground.

“It is not! We need to be heading towards the mountains.”

“No, it’s the opposite direction of the lake.”

“Why would it be there, we  _came_ from—”

The sound of mayhem explodes just behind them, and both Gon and Killua turn to see the moledragon spilling out of the trees, a few terrified lumberjacks barely hanging onto its flanks by what looks to be a makeshift harness made of rope and bits of tree trunks. The rest of the lumberjacks hurtle after them, calling out to their friends and screeching at the Hunters in equal volume. The moledragon snaps at the harness, swallowing two of the lumberjacks whole before they have time to scream.

That’s all it takes before Killua snatches Gon up in his arms and  _runs_. No more time for argument, no worries that maybe Gon might be right this time about where to go. He flies over the forest floor, electricity singing in his hair and Gon’s voice laughing in his ear even as he’s still trying to yell that they’re going the wrong way. But Killua’s running too fast to care, and Gon’s arms are strong and warm around his neck and maybe this is all a vacation is supposed to be, Killua and his best friend and  _running_ —

But then the forest runs out way too soon, and Killua screeches to a halt just before he runs them both off a cliff.

The forest stretches out in front of them, nestled in the center of a valley dotted with shimmering lakes and a tiny line where the river curls its way out of the mountains and towards a village, somewhere far away. It’s like the green never ends, a world of its own with its own secrets to hide and its own adventures to make. Wisps of white cloud look almost like cotton candy against the mountains, nearly close enough overhead to touch. Far away, a flock of metallic birds bursts out of the treetops and glimmer in the sunlight as they ascend, too big to be anything Killua recognizes. Gon would probably know.

“I told you southeast was the other way,” Gon says.

Killua drops his best friend into the dirt, smirking when Gon whines from the sudden loss of support. He doesn’t need to be reminded. “We’re on vacation, right? This is supposed to be an adventure.”

Not an adventure that might get them killed, but hey. That’s part of the fun.

It draws a bark of laughter out of Gon, and Killua lets a smile grow on his face. “What do you think we should do?” he asks. “I’m running a little low on electricity, since we’re in the middle of nowhere. And you’re the one who seems to know where we are.”

Gon rolls his eyes, still lying prone on the ground. “I don’t know where we  _are_ , Killua. I know where we  _should_ be.”

Killua prods him with the toe of a shoe, right in the ticklish part. Gon squirms away at the last minute. “So where should we be, dumbass?”

Gon fidgets a little more, standing so he gets a better look at the forest below. “Wow, we’re really high up,” he mutters, and Killua elbows him because that is  _not helping_. “Hey, Killua, I think that’s the clearing with Spinner’s flowers!”

Which is nowhere near where they need to go, and is actually useless right now when Killua can hear the sound of forest breaking and people screaming coming closer and closer. “And?” he demands.

“And—” Gon points out towards the river, his finger drifting away from the mountains and downhill “—we found what we’re looking for.”

“But how do we get there from here?”

Gon shrugs, a gleam in his eye that spells nothing but trouble. “We can go back through the forest with the moledragon. Or climb down from here? Maybe there’s a path…”

“How about I throw you off the cliff, and I’ll come up with a better plan for myself.”

“That’s no fair—”

The moledragon and the lumberjacks finally catch up with them, the former looking pleasantly well-fed as it crashes through the side of the clearing. There appear to be far less lumberjacks than there had been yesterday, and they definitely did not recently fall into a hole. They spill out of the clearing opposite the moledragon, trying to keep as much distance as possible between themselves and the beast while also cornering the pair of Hunters.

Serves them right, since they were trying to destroy the forest. Not that the moledragon is helping preserve the ecosystem, but this is its home. From the vicious grin on his face, Gon’s ecstatic at this turn of events.

Gon glances between their opponents, sizing them up like he’s reading to fight them all. He probably would, if Killua asked. And he might even win, if Killua helped. “Do you have any plans, Killua?”

He makes a show of tapping a finger to his lips like he’s thinking. The head lumberjack growls, a noise echoed the moledragon. “I’m a little busy now, but I’m free tonight.”

Gon laughs. “Killua!”

“I’m serious! It’s been too long since we went somewhere normal. Let’s get ice cream. You’re buying.”

“No way. It’s your fault we got into this,” Gon says.

“It’s just as much yours. Just like everything.” He grabs Gon’s hand, lacing their fingers together so they’re palm to palm. Gon’s smile deepens, his eyes dancing in the sun.

The lumberjacks are still yelling something about intestines, or viscera, or what they’re planning on doing as soon as they get their hands on the wayward Hunters. The moledragon cocks its head at the humans, evidently trying to pick out which morsel it wants to devour first. And beneath Killua’s back foot, the edge of the cliff begins to crumble, bits of dirt cascading down…and down…and  _down…_

Killua matches Gon grin for grin, a feeling like lightning making his blood race. “Besides. Even if it is not at all my fault we’re in this mess, I’m getting us out.”

“Yeah?” It’s a dare, a challenge, and a vote of trust all in a syllable, and Killua can’t help but love that. Love  _Gon._

So he tugs his best friend back towards him, kissing him fiercely. They only have a moment, but Killua relishes how perfectly Gon’s smile fits against his lips. Maybe this is exactly the right sort of vacation for them, after all.

“I definitely am,” Killua says, and throws them both off the cliff.

It’s a long way down. Gon laughs the entire way.

**Author's Note:**

> [you know you want to listen to it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeccAtqd5K8)
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> [tumblr!](https://xyliane.tumblr.com/)


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